


Come fosse domenica (Like it's sunday)

by hirondelle



Category: Magi: The Labyrinth of Magic
Genre: Alcohol, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Canon Compliant, Childhood Friends, Cigars, Class Differences, Class Issues, Drama & Romance, Lies, M/M, Manipulation, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Rating May Change, Resentment, Reunions, Separate Childhoods, Sexual Repression, Unresolved Romantic Tension, Unresolved Sexual Tension, i might be biased, still in english, there's a lot of italian culture here
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-11-05
Updated: 2020-11-05
Packaged: 2021-03-08 17:48:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,687
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27400714
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hirondelle/pseuds/hirondelle
Summary: It’s not like Cassim had planned to get together with Alibaba. To be utterly honest, chances he would have met him in this life had always been zero to him. He just… had let him go, like any other classmate, and forgot about it. And that had been hard, so hard to force himself to forget, because it’s not like he could forget someone like Alibaba- but he had managed to, in some way, and had gone on with his life.At least until Alibaba had broken into it without notice and had made himself at home. That was typical from one like Alibaba: always had his way.
Relationships: Judal | Judar/Ren Hakuryuu, Kassim | Cassim/Alibaba Saluja, not sure - Relationship
Comments: 5
Kudos: 8





	Come fosse domenica (Like it's sunday)

It’s not like Cassim had planned to get together with Alibaba. To be utterly honest, chances he would have met him in this life had always been zero to him. He just… had let him go, like any other classmate, and forgot about it. And that had been hard, so hard to force himself to forget, because it’s not like he could forget someone like Alibaba- but he had managed to, in some way, and had gone on with his life.

At least until Alibaba had broken into it without notice and had made himself at home. That was typical from one like Alibaba: always had his way.

It had been unexpected, but since he hadn’t moved from the same neighborhood he had been born into, Cassim was very easy to find. The only thing was… Cassim wouldn’t have bet on Alibaba descending from the literal Paradise to find him.

At first, he had thought it wasn’t because of him, since the only thing he had to do was attending the get-together that someone had organized for whatever’s sake. His presence had surprised him since nobody had seen Alibaba in ages, he simply thought that he wouldn’t have come.

If he had known, he wouldn’t have shown himself.

He hadn’t an excuse to not come. He wasn’t like Judar, _that punk_ , even if he kinda got along well with him of all people. Judar’s excuse was that everyone thought he was almost unsufferable. But for him, there wasn’t anything like that, since all he had to do back then was being Alibaba’s best friend, and that had been enough for everyone to accept him… because, well, Alibaba’s friends were everyone’s friends. Ironically, that had been enough for him to find his own acquaintances, even after Alibaba had left for good.

But now he was back.

And everyone was cheering at him because _of course_ he had been all secretive about it, he had wanted it to be a surprise after all, and well, everyone was _in pure adoration_ for him now so it had worked. And obviously everyone was looking at him expecting, all curious to know what he had done in all those years, what university he had chosen after all, what kind of majestic career was unfolding in front of him, and so on.

He couldn’t stand it.

The pizzeria was crowded and noisy, but even if he was at the opposite head of the table he could hear Alibaba’s annoying voice, and nothing else, since everyone was hanging from his lips. That was the event of the century and every single moment of it was a pain.

He excused himself a couple of times and went out for a smoke. Actually, more than a couple, and not for just a smoke, since that at the end of the night he had finished all of his prized cigars of contraband. But that was fine, since he was able to be in control for the whole time. Cassim was being nice. Everyone could tell he was nice. That was all that mattered, that none could see the twisted part of him that just wanted to jump on the table and get his hands around that precious neck. He even smiled at him in one or two occasions. Everything went smooth.

Until they had to depart and Cassim felt the urge to wreak it a little bit more.

“Want to go on?” he asked Hakuryuu before leaving, his voice harsh with ashes. The other one looked at him with the same jaded expression as always. Cassim fooled around with him quite frequently so it wasn’t an out-of-the-blue offer. “Sure,” he answered, “Let’s pick up Judar, first”.

Hakuryuu couldn’t do anything without Judar at his side and maybe that was the very reason his contribute to that night had been the same one of a wallpaper. Or maybe, it had to do with the fact that Hakuryuu couldn’t really stand Alibaba. Not in the same way as him of course. There were really unknown reasons for that and Cassim couldn’t care less. “Yeah, sure,” he approved, because Judar was a party beast after all and that was the only thing that he needed at the moment.

“Do you mind if I join?” a voice exclaimed behind them, between the rustling of scarves being worn and the jingles of keys being extracted from pouches.

Of course it had to be him.

Cassim smiled in Alibaba’s direction. He began to examine the situation almost without noticing. Accepting him in would have meant prolonging his agony. He didn’t have spare cigars for that. But on the other hand…

“Sure, why don’t we use your car?”

He would have been a fool to not notice it, the red Jaguar parked in front of the pizzeria. That _very_ twisted part of him had felt the primal urge to key it the very first moment he had seen it. But of course it had to be Alibaba’s car, so it was not like he could do something so mischievous. And Judar wasn’t there, so it would have been pointless. No fun in keying the car of a childhood friend without Judar.

“Yeah, why not?” Alibaba smiled, with that usual ray-of-sunshine attitude. Then he approached him as everybody ran past them, waving byes and exchanging cheek kisses. But after a whole night being at the center of the attention, Alibaba seemed to have eyes for him only. “It’s been so long,” he whispered, so near he could have touched him.

Cassim was a masochist.

So they drove to the destination of their after dinner, a club which Cassim highly doubted Alibaba could know, and indeed he needed their indication to get there. Hakuryuu called Judar and he told them to wait for him there.

Cassim said nothing the entire ride and it would have been very awkward if it hadn’t been for Hakuryuu who decided to be polite after all and chatted with Alibaba of this and that, nothing Cassim didn’t know already after all. It felt weird to have Alibaba there after all those years and not being able to reach him, not _wanting_ to reach him. Could it be that the last image he had of him was him getting on a blue car and then nothing else. It was not like Alibaba hadn’t tried to keep in touch. Cassim still hadn’t a phone back then, but that hadn’t stopped Alibaba from writing him a letter every single week. Cassim had just stopped reading them.

After they ordered their drink, Alibaba started chatting with him too and Cassim could tell he wanted to confront him about it, but he just smiled and let him have his way. “I’m sure there has been a problem with the Italian Post Office,” he lied, “You know how things work”.

“Yeah,” Alibaba pouted, obviously outraged. “Smartphones are a blessing these days. You should give me your number”.

“Sure,” Cassim said, taking a sip of his gin. Alibaba pulled out his iPhone and he began to dictate Zaynab’s number.

He wasn’t sure Judar could tell which number Alibaba was being given, but of course he knew very well it wasn’t his, and Cassim heard him snorting in amusement. They smiled at each other from a side to the other of Alibaba’s shoulders. Cassim looked down at him to check he didn’t notice but of course he was too caught up by the phone. He even repeated it to him to be sure. “Yeah, that’s it,” Cassim said.

“C’mon Baba, let’s celebrate!” Judar cried from the stool beside him, and patted his shoulder with too much force. The music was loud, but Judar was louder for sure.

“R-right,” Alibaba stuttered, “It’s good to see you too, Judar. Let’s drink”.

There were many things that Cassim had missed about Alibaba, and his tolerance to alcohol was one of them for sure. Thinking about that, it was almost obvious that Alibaba couldn’t handle two glasses of wine, let alone the strong Long Island that Judal offered him. And the next. And the next too. In less than twenty minutes he was already gone.

“Haven’t you been too harsh?” Cassim chuckled, seeing his childhood friend collapsing on the bar’s counter in front of them.

“You couldn’t have left me out of the fun for too long,” Judar winked at him, “Besides, I really hated this dude back in the days”.

Hakuryuu raised an eyebrow at that. “Is there someone you don’t hate, Judar?”

Judar turned his head to him and smiled cheery. “You, of course!”

The guy grunted back, but he didn’t encourage him more of that. “He is the one driving, how are we supposed to go back?”

“Let’s leave him here, we can take the night bus,” Judar protested, “It’s none of our business”.

Cassim was already rustling through his pockets in search of something. Robbing him would have been too much, but there was nothing wrong giving a peek. “Or we could wait for him to sober enough. If not, Hakuryuu drives”.

“I haven’t ever driven a Jaguar,” Hakuryuu noted.

“Me neither, I haven’t had the pleasure yet,” Cassim replied sarcastically, taking Alibaba’s wallet. Of course, no cash, just the gold card he had used in the pizzeria. He showed it to the other two with a dramatic gesture. “If something bad happens, it won’t be a problem for him, I’m telling ya”.

Hakuryuu frowned at that but Cassim knew him well enough to see that he didn’t really care. He put the wallet back without touching anything else. No need to _know_ anything else.

He was too focused on his mischievous task to notice that the barista was handing him a drink he hadn’t ordered. One of those sophisticated cocktails he wouldn’t have ever paid for. “Seems like you have a suitor, Cassim”.

“What news,” Judar grumbled, observing the glass with suspicion. 

“Not a great observer, though,” Cassim chuckled. Yeah, it was not like it was the first time. The good thing about being himself was that he could find a chick to get laid with without even trying. Girls were literally magnetized. Attracted like bees to a honey pot. To use Zay’s words, _dumbed down by a couple of dreadlocks and a face everyone else would have wanted to punch_. That was him.

Usually he wouldn’t have cared. Or to be utterly honest: he would have given himself the luxury of being ridiculously selective about it. But as he lowered his gaze on Alibaba, he remembered the reason why he went there in the very first place.

The thought of Alibaba had been harassing at the point that he couldn’t stand a single night being alone with it.

“Who’s that?” he asked at the man at the other side of the counter. They knew each other well enough to be accomplices so there was no way he would have fooled him. But Cassim noticed a light in his eyes that made him vigilant.

“She’s back there, sitting on the couches. I wouldn’t take the trouble, though,” the barista said, bending over the table conspiratorially.

“How’s that?” Cassim frowned, annoyed to say the least. He didn’t care about a single thing at the moment, just snapping out of that torture was more than enough.

The man finally said: “She’s a _Kou_ ”.

At those words, Hakuryuu snorted mockingly. “Ah, she must be my cousin. Not that bad, but good luck dealing with En”.

Cassim knew about Kou’s family. One of those enlarged and well-connected family from the upper city, who usually didn’t bother to come in a place like that. Why now? “How come they are here?” he grumbled, looking at the barista in a grudge. “Are you selling yourself to the preppies, old man?”

“Don’t be silly,” The barista shrugged and turned around like he wanted to avoid the conversation, but Cassim could tell he was secretly sweating. Usually he would have started a fight, but he wasn’t drunk enough and not in a good mood either.

“I have nothing to spare with people like that,” he mumbled. He looked down at Alibaba, still blissfully sleeping next to him. _Asshole_. If he hadn’t come to that dinner in the first place, now Cassim would have been fine. People always had something to complain about his bad temper whatsoever, when the majority of the time it was just Alibaba’s fault. He didn’t want to get back there. So he got up and marched towards Hakuryuu. “I’ll have a smoke now,” he declared, peremptory.

“Don’t look at me, I have nothing left,” Hakuryuu muttered, “Besides, haven’t you smoked enough tonight?”

“ _Mind your fucking business, Ren_ ” Cassim snapped. So loud that people around them turned their heads in their direction almost in automatic, only to find Cassim’s golden and intimidating gaze. Then they returned to their own conversation.

Judar whistled in amusement as he observed him diving into the crowd. “That sure is a burst”.

Eventually, he calmed down. He was known well enough in the neighborhood that people didn’t mind offering him things: they knew he would have repaid the favor, with interests either. Being an honest man _, if only towards his peers, and_ _as much as one like him could_ , made him feel proud of himself. So there he was, a new cigar between his lips, and once his anger died down he could even chat a little with those who had decided to spend the night out in the cold, sheltered only by a canopy.

“Is it yours? The Jaguar in the park lot, I mean,” one of them inquired. Cassim knew him, he was part of his trail.

He smiled cocky, “I don’t gain _that_ much, Sa’id. No, I have a plus-one tonight”.

Cassim could tell that term would have made them think about something, but he usually didn’t care. It was not like he didn’t date. Usually they lasted from a pair of hours to a max of a week or two. Maybe _dating_ wasn’t the correct term, to be fair. But there was something about all the situation that was making him extremely uncomfortable.

Sa’id chuckled. He was thinking he knew what was going on. “Do you mean the blondie who collapsed on the counter a few minutes ago? You sure are going hard on him”.

“So you saw it too?” a girl at his right exclaimed. “I couldn’t believe it, he just plopped like a potato sack!”

They all started laughing and he laughed with them. He kind of liked laughing at Alibaba, after all. It was cathartic. It was like he wasn’t even there.

_But he was there._

And as soon as Sa’id and the other quieted down, he knew he was closer than he’d have liked.

He turned towards the back entrance as the doors closed behind Alibaba’s shoulders. Cassim noticed he hadn’t put his jacket on, but it looked like he wasn’t suffering the cold that much to bother. The look on his face was quite shady.

“My, my, if it isn’t Alibaba,” he chanted, but he felt nervous all of sudden and inhaled more smoke than he wanted to. He handled it in the back of his throat to force it out in a low sigh.

Alibaba approached him cautiously, giving a look around him with a quite displeased glare. Everyone looked down at him with suspicion but easily stepped aside and went back to their business. Cassim knew they could have been able to hear their conversation anyway. But Alibaba was quite silent, so he supposed he was still drunk and was there just to call him inside.

“Let me finish this one, would you mind?” he asked, shaking the cigar in front of his nose.

“I just want to know why you didn’t write me back” Alibaba said, abruptly.

Cassim gasped quietly at that. He hadn’t expected something like that. He looked at his childhood friend to see if he was as sober as he sounded: his firm, golden gaze reciprocated, and he couldn’t help but shiver. That glare was the most familiar thing he had seen in him that night.

“I know you did it on purpose,” Alibaba insisted. “because even back then I could tell you were mad at me”.

Cassim could feel his rage climb back again. So Alibaba knew, but obviously hadn’t had anything done about it. Just because back then Cassim had been the only one to take care of everything. Alibaba couldn’t do anything by himself, after all, and after all these years he still expected something from him.

Cassim would rather have preferred him to be totally clueless.

Alternatively, he would have preferred Alibaba to be more hurt than that and leave him alone for good.

Cassim let another puff of smoke escape from his lips and land on Alibaba’s face, now so near he could have slapped him. But he wanted to hold it together a little longer. “Seems like you already have your answer, Alibaba,” he said, his voice deeper and harsher. “What do you want from me?”

Alibaba poked at his chest. “I just want to sort this out, you jerk”.

“Took you long enough,” Cassim blew out. “Are you serious Alibaba? It’s been ten years”.

Alibaba stammered at that, his confidence fading a bit. Cassim growled. That idiot. For a moment, he had really believed Alibaba had grown up, even a little bit. But the life of rich kids wasn’t really as enlightening. All those years down to the drain, apparently.

“I stayed here the whole time, you know? All you had to do was _stooping to my level_ ”.

That had been loud. Somebody turned their head at them, startled by the sudden change of tone. It wasn’t rare to see Cassim like that; always short tempered, but so intimidating at the same time. Alibaba looked around, clearly uneasy with the situation. When he went back to stare at Cassim, his skin was a bit paler.

“What do you mean by that, Cassim?” he whispered, unsure.

The other one stretched his strong arms. “You were the one who left, Alibaba”.

And Alibaba’s eyes widened at that. Like he didn’t know. But now that his façade of innocence had dropped down, Cassim wouldn’t have been as indulgent as before.

“You should really try getting into my perspective here,” he continued, like he was making a speech. All eyes were on him now. Cassim could feel the thrill of excitement that overwhelmed him only when he was at the center of the attention. _That_ was a feeling he could eagerly handle. “It wasn’t me who decided that a life in the suburbs wasn’t worth it, after all”.

People seemed to notice. As he finished talking, a lingering tension began spreading around them, as everyone was giving Alibaba’s looks of suspicion.

“I was born here!” Alibaba cried out, now talking to everybody, and maybe nobody at all. “And here I have always been! With all of you!”

“Oh, but how the table turns when life doesn’t give you lemons anymore, right?” Cassim spat out. “You left, Alibaba. You did really think that everything would have stayed the same, right? Do you really think I could believe something like _you giving a damn about me_?”

A strange silence followed, as if everyone around them was really expecting Alibaba to answer. They were looking at him in suspicion, hatred lingering over them. Someone cheered for Cassim and some others whistled, but Alibaba stayed quiet, his gaze now lowered on the ground. Cassim smirked, knowing that it was Alibaba the one being humiliated, after all.

Cassim wanted to grasp that sense of despair right from his face.

But when Alibaba raised his head again, there still was that pride and fierceness that distinguished him from anybody else he had encountered in his life.

“It’s true, I left,” Alibaba declared, “But that doesn’t mean I gave up on you”.

“ _You liar_ ,” Cassim barked, and Sa’id approached quickly as he adverted the tension, ready to stop him from assaulting his childhood friend. All he had to do was giving him a mean look and he petrified on place. Slowly, he came back to Alibaba, his voice lowered by a tone. He wanted control. With that, Alibaba would have been submitted for good. “It looks like you hadn’t thought enough about this before coming here, Alibaba. You probably thought I’d welcome you with open arms. _You fool_ ”.

That was obvious. Alibaba relied so much on his luck that he probably hadn’t ever prepared an excuse convincing enough. Alibaba had simply _underestimated_ him, but it was not like they were kids anymore.

Cassim hated him so much.

But Alibaba was standing still, with those damn eyes piercing him, searching for his soul, and Cassim feared for a moment that he could also _reach_ it and see the dirt.

“You are wrong. I’m not here to expect your forgiving”.

That word made Cassim waver. _Forgiving_ , Alibaba said. Would have been able to forgive Alibaba, at one point? He always had refused to for his own sake. Forgiving him was not something he could do, if not for Alibaba’s wellbeing once again. Forgiving meant that Alibaba would have won one last time.

Forgiving meant letting Alibaba go for real.

“I’m not here to indulge myself,” Alibaba declared. He gave him a smirk that somehow resembled the one that he had always given him back in the days, when problems had arisen but Alibaba had been there for them. Cassim frowned, adverting that he was being defeated.

 _Always had his way_.

“I’m here because once I called you brother, and I consider you as such”.

“Prove it,” Cassim hissed, feeling his anger mount again. He wouldn’t have stopped her, this time. This time he would have let her flow out of him and crush Alibaba under his eyes.

 _Cassim hated him so damn much_.

Alibaba smiled openly, so warm that he could have been able to smash the first autumn chills with his own will. “Stick with me, because it’s exactly what I intend to do”.

_Cassim was a masochist._

**Author's Note:**

> I'm not sure if I'll ever continue this thing but I have a lot of ideas for this AU so be prepared.  
> I'm a very italian girl living the very italian hell, but one of the great things about it is that we have a lot of great indie music, so I might have been inspired by some very italian lyrics to write this thing down. Indie italian music is usually bitter and a lot of fun.  
> For context: Cassim is 24, Alibaba is 23, Rashid is a congressman, Mariam is still alive and lives together with Cassim in the suburbs (thank God). Hakuryuu is a lot more morally grey than he should and Judal is a beast.  
> Rating might arise due to mention of drugs, drug traffic and dub-con but we'll see... I'll probably let this thing here for a while.


End file.
